The first read-through pictures have been unveiled for the upcoming UK and Ireland tour of the hit musical Wicked.

The revisionist take on the Wizard of Oz story has been on Broadway since 2003 and opened at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre in September 2006, where it is still running.

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Rehearsals for the nationwide tour began on Monday (August 5) and the cast for the run includes Nikki Davis-Jones as Elphaba, Emily Tierney as Glinda, Liam Doyle as Fiyero, Marilyn Cutts as Madame Morrible and Dale Rapley as The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond.

Davis-Jones previously played Elpheba at the London run of Wicked where she was a standby. She has also appeared in Rent, LIFT, Peter Pan, Fame The Musical, Never Forget, ASAP, Mamma Mia and Blood Brothers

Tierney has appeared in the London production of Wicked and later appeared as Glinda in Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium

Doyle previously won a talent search to play Troy Bolton in the touring stage version of High School Musical 2.

The UK & Ireland Tour dates are as follows:

Manchester Palace Theatre - September 12 to November 16

Dublin Bord GÃ¡is Energy Theatre November 27 to January 18

Milton Keynes Theatre - February 4 to March 8

Wales Millennium Centre March 12 to April 26

Glasgow King's Theatre - May 6 to May 31

Leeds Grand Theatre - June 10 to July 5

Birmingham Hippodrome - July 9 to September 6

Tickets are now on sale at all venues and further cities and dates into 2015 are to be announced.

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Wicked is based on Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which reimagines the stories and characters in L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

It has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, a book by Winnie Holzman, musical staging by Wayne Cilento and is directed by Joe Mantello.

Wicked is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B Platt and David Stone. The executive producer for the UK & Ireland is Michael McCabe.